New partnership for cellulosic providers to the food industry

Hercules Aqualon, a supplier of cellulosic products used to modify the physical properties of aqueous or water based systems, reported recently that it has appointed the UK, French, Belgium and German IMCD companies as partners in the supply and distribution of cellulosics to the food industry.

Dutch-based IMCD provides distribution services between producers and consumers of speciality chemicals and food ingredients. Hercules Aqualon's relationship with Honeywill & Stein spans ten years. The relationship has now developed to include the food team, as of 1 February 2002. This expansion is the culmination of a series of meetings between IMCD and Aqualon.

The Aqualon Benecel, Aquasorb, Blanose and Klucel cellulosic product range provides technical functional ingredients for food manufacturers.

IMCD​, with head offices in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has a turnover of €600m and has 650 staff. In June 2001 the group became independent from Internatio-Müller, a pan-European distributor of specialty food ingredients, through a management buyout.